Annals of Aldamere

Trolling for Troll

Olis, Marcel, Thorne, Gabriel, Gretta

Having arrived at Winnownog,, Ser Marcel was greeted warmly as the village was in great need. Over the prior few weeks, a number of the local children had disappeared and the villagers were desperate to find the culprit and rescue them. A search party of local militia had left a few days prior, and had not returned. After resupplying and pressing the locals for whatever information they might possess—which largely consisted of stories of spiderfolk, ratfolk, and perhaps other beastkin—the party set off with Wiertof following the trail of the search party through the Spiderwood to the foot of Mount Bubi.

With no further sign of passage, Ser Marcel and Olis set the party to scaling the mount and searching the system of caves along the route. The caves were home to an assortment of subterranean creatures, all of which hostilely protected their territory and captured intense interest from Thorne. In addition to deadly rocks, El Pollo Diablo, and strange glowing beetles, the switchback path showed this also to be the domain of a fearsome Mountain Troll.

Thankfully the troll slept during the day, leaving the group free to reconnoiter before coping with such a powerful threat. Scouting out the den of the troll, Gabriel discovered a blocked passage that could well be trapping the missing children or militia men, so it was decided to assault the creature while it slept and then bait it into the open. Gabriel was also able to recover a strange, rune-engraved hammer from the troll’s bedchamber.

The first attempt did not go as planned with the troll’s dislike of the sun overriding its rage at being so rudely awakened. When it finally emerged from its lair after sunset, it was pelted with missile fire and a particularly well landed boulder pushed by Gretta. While it was a fierce fight, luck was with Ser Marcel’s men and not with the troll, and it was smote upon the mountain side.

With the troll having fell down into the darkness of night, the party set to work at moving the impressive boulder that blocked the leftmost passage within the troll’s dwelling, while Thorne reminded the party of what he/she felt was the most intriguing discovery of a deep, twisty passage that was unusually cold digging deep into the mountain …